Understanding and Leading Change: A Report on Sainsbury's

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UNDERSTANDING AND LEADING
CHANGE
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1: IMPACT OF CHANGE...................................................................................................4
P1:................................................................................................................................................4
P2:................................................................................................................................................6
P3:................................................................................................................................................8
M1:.............................................................................................................................................10
M2:.............................................................................................................................................12
TASK 2: LEADERSHIP DECISION MAKING..........................................................................15
P5:..............................................................................................................................................15
M4:.............................................................................................................................................16
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18
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INTRODUCTION
Organizational change means modification in the organizational environment in which it
operates. Change is an inevitable part of the organization. And the organization can
survive without adopting the change in their organizational operations. The
organizational environment is highly dynamic and versatile which requires continuous
adoptions to meet these changes. The growth and development of the organization also
depend on the changing behavior of the employees (Kaufman, 2017). Thus it can be a
driver or threat in the growth of the organization. The organizational change is also an
important part of Sainsbury. The change in the Sainsbury can be due to external
pressures or internal pressures. The external pressures include the change in market
situations, technology, equipment, social or political change. On the other hand, internal
pressure includes the change in management style, employee's behavior, and
leadership styles and so on.
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TASK 1: IMPACT OF CHANGE
P1:
Impact of change on the organization’s strategy and operations
Change is an unavoidable part is of any business and it can have a positive or negative
impact on the organization's strategy and operations.
Positive impact
 Creates new business opportunities
Change in the Sainsbury can help the employer as well as employees in creating new
business opportunities. The change brings new opportunities along with new
responsibilities, preparing the individual for future promotion (Lewis, 2019).
 Encouraging business innovation
The change in the company can foster the business environment which helps in
encouraging innovation. Sainsbury allows the employees to share their ideas and to
think more creatively. Their ideas help the managers in developing the strategy and also
in their day-to-day operations.
 Increases business efficiency
The change in the organization strategy and operations increases work efficiency of
employee which increases the satisfaction level of Sainsbury’s customers. The change
in the operation improves the delivery process and the customer receives the goods on
time. The change not only helps in improving the customer service but it also facilitates
smooth operation within the organization (Hornstein, 2015).
Negative impact
 Resistance to change
In many circumstances, the organization especially employees are not ready to adapt to
the change. The Sainsbury has to invest it's funded in employee's education, skills
upgrading or training. This whole process increases the financial burden on the
company.
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 Develop a definable strategy
The stakeholders of the Sainsbury expect from the management that the change must
be properly defined. It becomes difficult for the leaders or managers to communicate the
impact of change, benefits of change or negative impact of change such as risk, costs,
return on investment, etc. (Epstein, 2018).
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P2:
Internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and individual
behaviors within an organization
The organization is dependent on a different interdependent structure that affects its
daily operations, strategic decisions as well as the future plans for facing competitive
challenges. The internal and external drivers of change that affect the business
operation of Sainsbury are as follows:
Internal drivers
1. Leadership
Leaders are the individuals that take the major decisions in the Sainsbury such as
marketing, sales, human resources, etc. The leaders in the Sainsbury have a strong
vision and plan to achieve the organizational goal and objectives. The leaders are the
major driver that affects the behavior of employees.
2. Employees
The employees of the Sainsbury are provided with proper training, encouragement, and
support to meet the expectations of the company. In order to ensure high performance
and profitability, the management continuously communicates with the employees so
that they do not hesitate in adopting the change (Al-Haddad and Kotnour, 2015).
3. Communication
The company follows two-way communication for encouraging change in the
organization. This practice helps in influencing the behavior of leaders, individual as well
as a team. Two-way communication helps in improving the result, performance, and
profitability.
External drivers
1. Technological capacity
Technological capacity is the important external driver that indirectly affects the
business operations of Sainsbury in the long-run. It is necessary for the company to
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adopt its organization structure according to modern technology so that it gives tough
competition to rivalry.
2. Economic forces
The Sainsbury has its operation in several countries and the economic forces can either
present the opportunities or threats to the country. The economic factors that affect its
business are fluctuation in interest rates, inflation rates, change in tax or economic
policies, etc. For instance, the disposable income of the consumer directly relates to the
demand for goods in the country.
3. Change in preference and needs of the customers
The company has to change its internal structure when the needs and wants of the
consumer changes. The consumer demands the innovative and new products from the
company therefore to meet the changing demand they have to constantly change their
product offerings. The internal structure includes the behavior of leadership, individual
and team must be altered (Shah et al., 2017).
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P3:
Measures were taken by the organization to minimize the negative impact of
change on organizational behavior
In order to minimize the impact of change on organizational behavior the Sainsbury
must follow these measures:
1. Defining the change and aligning it to business goals
The Sainsbury must define the change clearly and its impact on each and every activity
of the company. The change must be reviewed and linked to the organizational
objectives. This step also helps in evaluating the value of change through the
performance of the employees, financially as well as ethically.
2. Determining the impact of change
Once the goal of the change is defined then it becomes easy for the management to
determine the impact of change on each level of management. The manager or leader
can again review the impact of change on organizational behavior and can take steps to
reduce the negative impact on the organization behavior. This measure helps in
determining the areas of training and support needed to reduce the negative impact
(Argyris, 2017).
3. Develop a communication strategy
The negative impact of change can be minimized by developing a proper
communication strategy in the Sainsbury. In order to implement the change strategy in
the organization, the manager must properly communicate the key message,
expectations from the employees, the impact of change in their roles and
responsibilities. In the Sainsbury, the medium used to communicate the change is
through email and annual meeting.
4. Providing effective training
In the initial stage, employees generally hesitate to adopt the change. But the
employees in the Sainsbury are provided with proper training, skills, and knowledge to
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operate effectively with the change. Training in the Sainsbury includes micro-learning
through online schedules because the company wants to operate in a similar manner in
all the countries. Other than online schedules the company also uses face-to-face
training sessions, mentoring and on the job training.
5. Steps to measure the change process
In the whole process of change management, the company must measure the impact of
change on the business operation of Sainsbury. This will help in identifying the mistakes
and opportunities that a business can use to build proficiencies. The manager should
also evaluate the change management plan to define the effectiveness and the lessons
learned from the negative impact of change (Vogel et al., 2016).
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M1:
Different drivers of change and types of organizational change
Drivers of change
The change is a result of the external and internal pressures that change the shape and
operations of the business. As a result, the Sainsbury has to make a change in the
strategies, policies, plans, products, services as well as operations. Different drivers of
change seen in the Sainsbury are as follows:
 Principles
Sainsbury follows certain principles and policies for running the organization smoothly in
all the countries. The change in the principles i.e. in the day-to-day activities or any
internal change is a result of the change. The need for bringing change in the principles
is because of change in the internal or external forces (Alvesson and Sveningsson,
2015).
 Measurements
The Sainsbury follows the practice to measure the things, performance of the
employees as well as change. The reason behind this measurement is to improve and
adopt the measures that bring positive result in the organization.
 Organization culture
Change in the organizational culture such as habits, policies, norms, leadership and
management style, etc. also contributing in adopting the change. For instance, the
change in the leadership style will affect the behavior of the employees and their
performance level.
Types of organizational change
Organizational change of Sainsbury is divided into the following categories:
 Structural change
Structural change can be defined as any change in the organization structure or
the overall design of the organization. In the Sainsbury, the structural change can
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be witnessed through a change in decentralization, management, job design,
work schedule, and others. The other structural change of the organization
includes change in the reward and compensation benefits, performance
appraisal system or control system (Cameron and Green, 2015).
 Technological change
The use of technology in the Sainsbury is very high. The company takes the help
of technology in recording and collecting the information from different
departments as well as different parts of the world in which it operates. The
change in technology can also be seen through equipment, automation,
information-processing system, work process, etc.
 Transformational change
The transformational change focuses on the change in the organizational
strategy used by the Sainsbury. Transformational change facilitates the company
to adopt and transform with the rapid change in the industry. The factors which
the leader must consider while developing the organizational strategy of the
Sainsbury are a social climate of different countries, cultural trends and
technological progress (Cameron and Green, 2015).
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M2:
Theories and models to evaluate the organizational response to change
There are various theories of organizational change but these are the two theories
adopted by the Sainsbury to cope with the change:
Kurt Lewin’s Change Theory
Kurt Lewin developed the change management model in the year 1940 which focuses
on the modification in the employee behavior. Lewin divided the steps into three stages:
Unfreeze stage
In this stage, the management realizes the need for change in the Sainsbury. This can
be reflected through human interactions, conflicts, non-achievement of the task,
inefficient performance, etc. Before implementing the change, the management makes
clear the need and explains the reason why the change process needs to put into
action. This part of the process can be stressful or difficult because the employees find
it difficult to change their old habits and adopting new practices.
Change stage
It is important for the Sainsbury to implement the change within a short period of time. In
this stage, the people leave their old habits and start adopting according to new things.
The company helps the employees to understand the impact and benefit of change on
their job and responsibilities. In order to support the employees, Sainsbury uses
communication and time that occurs the change successfully (Hussain et al., 2018).
Refreeze stage
When the change is successfully taking shape and people are behaving in the expected
level, the organization refreezes the change. The signs that give hints to this stage are
stable jobs, organization structure, constant job description and so forth. When the
employees feel the sense of stability they become more confident and comfortable with
the new ways of doing things.
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